Tips for Hiring a Carpenter, By Stu Silverman

Are you updating your kitchen or bathroom with new cabinets? Refinishing or repairing your existing ones? Building custom cabinets and furniture, or building a custom closet? However you choose to renew your home for added convenience, beauty - and value - you'll need to hire a skilled carpenter.

For routine jobs, rely more on price

If you're dealing with routine carpentry jobs like installing pre-made cabinets, refinishing or repairing cabinets and furniture, or building a closet, most carpenters can do a good job. The major difference between carpenters for these types of jobs will be things like work ethic and punctuality, as well as their ability to provide helpful suggestions regarding the work. Be sure to use the testimonials on this site from homeowners who have used a contractor's services, and always check references. You may also want to inspect some of the carpenter's previous work. For these types of jobs, you can generally rely more on price to sway your decision.

Ask an expert for a recommendation

For higher-end jobs like building custom furniture or cabinets, you may want to take greater care in inspecting the carpenter or cabinetmaker's previous work. You will be paying a premium for these services - for example, you'll pay about 20% more for custom-made cabinets over semi-custom, and about 40% more over pre-fab - so you want to make sure you're getting the

best quality for your money. It is more precise work and there is more that can go wrong. For this type of job, it is a good idea to get recommendations from a general contractor or even from another carpenter, because they know quality workmanship when they see it. Also, general contractors have worked with lots of carpenters and cabinetmakers and they know who they can rely on to deliver quality results on time.

For carpenters and cabinetmakers, there is really no substitute for experience.

There's no substitute for experience

For carpenters and cabinetmakers, there is really no substitute for experience. All carpenters learn their trade on the job and through apprenticeships, which usually last 4 years. In the U.S., there is no governing body over carpenters and no accreditation. But if you're the type of person who absolutely needs to see the piece of paper in order to be satisfied, you can look for a carpenter with an apprenticeship administered by either the Associate Builders and Contractors, the Associated General Contractors, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, or by the National Association of Home Builders. But again, years of experience and a proven track record for quality work should speak for itself.